ChessVar

ChessVar is a desktop chess application that supports multiple chess variants, puzzle training, and saved game history.

AI USE

AI(ChatGPT) was used for some code generation, debugging and graphics(logos).

Key Features

• Multiple game modes

  • Player vs Player
  • Player vs Bot
  • Chess Puzzles

• Supported chess variants

  • Standard
  • Suicide
  • Giveaway
  • Antichess
  • Atomic
  • King of the Hill
  • Horde
  • Three-check

• Interactive board UI

  • Click-to-move and drag-and-drop piece interaction
  • Legal move highlighting
  • Pawn promotion dialog
  • Board annotations: square highlights and arrows
  • Dynamic board scaling based on window/screen size

• In-game tools

  • Move history list with navigation
  • Jump backward and forward through played moves
  • Material balance display
  • Game-over overlay with result reason
  • Keyboard shortcuts support
  • Game history

• Export options

  • Export current position as FEN
  • Export full game as PGN

• Variant learning support

  • Built-in Rules dialog for every supported variant directly from the main menu

• Bot support

  • Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty levels
  • Engine-backed move generation through Fairy-Stockfish integration

Technologies Used

• python
• PySide6
• python-chess
• Fairy-StockFish

Project Structure

ChessVar/
├── assets/                  # Piece graphics and branding assets
├── engines/                 # Embedded chess engine binaries
├── game/                    # Core game state and bot worker logic
├── gui/                     # Main interface, board widgets, dialogs, overlays
├── puzzles/                 # Built-in puzzle dataset
├── utils/                   # Utilities files
├── main.py                  # Application entry point
└── README.md

Local Data Storage

ChessVar stores user progress/history locally in:

• ~/.chessvar/puzzle_progress.json
• ~/.chessvar/game_history.json

Asset Credit

Chess piece graphics by Cburnett — Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1499803